The internet isn’t short of ways for you to transfer money from one party to another, whether that’s paying your friends, or buying something from an online store. There are lots of options you can choose from, some more well-known than others.

PayPal is the undisputed king of online payments, but the benefits of their service has already been well covered, and we bet you have plenty of experience using them, seeing as they are one of the de facto payment methods on a huge array of online shopping platforms.

But there are a great range of other services that are gunning for PayPal’s crown, which are winning fans across the web.

We’ll take a look at some of the most popular options below.

Neteller

Neteller is a flexible e-wallet, not dissimilar to PayPal. It has won fans through its simplicity of use, as well as the variety of options money can be deposited into an account, which includes from debit and credit cards. Neteller also has different tiers of user accounts, which gives VIP members who deposit certain amounts additional perks and benefits.

This differs from PayPal, who often come under fire due to their complicated fee structures.

Neteller is fast, safe and secure, which is useful for platforms where money changes accounts very quickly, such as at an online casino, or a forex trading platform. Within the online gambling industry, this lets people deposit funds into their account without interupting their gameflow – if their bankroll is running a little low, more funds can seemlessly and instantaneously be added without leaving their blackjack table, for example. In the forex world, the speed at which money can be deposited is another critical feature – especially if someone spots a lucrative trade that needs acting upon immediately. These payments can happen much quicker than what was typically possible before the world of online payments really took off.

Skrill

Skrill is another excellent e-wallet, that also comes with the feature to deposit from several debit and credit cards. What’s unique about Skrill is that they have an awesome referral scheme, which gives a way for loyal users to earn some cash as a thank you.

They also regularly secure special offers with vendors if you play through Skrill, most notably in the betting and gaming sector, which is a great draw if you’re a regular gamer.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the king of ‘off grid’ payments. It has seen a huge surge of interest, especially in the Isle of Man, thanks to its low tax arrangements.

Bitcoin also operates on a digital wallet basis, albeit with a huge twist. The service is anonymised, meaning the wallet is only identifiable as a random string of letters. This is known as Bitcoin wallet address and is the address people transfer BTC into.

Another groundbreaking feature of BTC is that it’s totally decentralised and operates independently of any organisation or government.

Bitcoins can be tricks to get a hold of, but there plenty of Bitcoin exchanges where you can grab a share of the virtual currency.

All in all, there’s some really great alternatives to the more mainstream payment methods, all of which come with their own unique perks and benefits. All of these services are near instantaneous, with Skrill and Neteller even coming with the option to have your balance loaded onto a special Mastercard linked to your account, acting as a virtual debit account.

The same tech exists for Bitcoin, although it is much less popular. Bitcoin ATMs are appearing, slowly, up and down the country, with a cluster available in London. These allow people to withdraw their Bitcoin from a physical machine, much the same as a traditional fiat currency.